The Field Between

We talk about a hot new collab between a beloved fast food chain and the Ivy League, and Elon Musk's incredibly bad-faith take on work from home before we dive into the first four chapters of Art Preis's 'Labor's Giant Step,' which is a history of the first twenty years of the CIO. The book is an excellent history of a resurgence in labor militancy in the 1930s, and has several important lessons for the increasing union activity/labor organizing we see happening today.

Episode cover: Photo from the Minneapolis Teamsters strike in 1934

We talk about a new DEI initiative in corporate America. Also, it's our one year marriage anniversary, so it's the perfect time for a performance review.

We discuss a legend in the music industry coming out of retirement, CEO meltdowns, then professor Yasmine Flodin-Ali talks to us about her dissertation, which focuses on the racialization of Muslim identities in the United States.

Eid Mubarak! We are releasing a special episode a little early. We follow MBS on a spiritual journey through the Crypto-Caliphate in the year 2075. Then Yasmine talks to our dear friend Dr. Abbas Rattani (founder of Mipsterz) about Muslim Futurism.

Techno-Jahannam credits:

Written and Produced by Ahmed Amer

MBS voiced by Corey Reid

Brody and Elon voiced by Jonathan Kear

ImmigrantBot voiced by Ahmed Amer

Music by Ahmed Amer

Ads written and voice acted by Yasmine Flodin-Ali and Ahmed Amer

Mipsterz: https://www.mipsterz.com/about

No readings this week, but we did enjoy playing a variation of Yasmine's favorite "game." We used the last of our strength to record this episode after a beautiful and busy weekend, so we thought we'd reach for some low-hanging fruit and revisit the NYT 36 questions list, which we used to break the ice with each other at the start of our relationship.

Please enjoy while we continue working on a VERY special Ramadan episode, which will come out later this week.

Look to your right. Look to your left. You are surrounded by objects. What is your relation to them? What is their relation to one another? Are any of them your dad?

We discuss Jean Baudrillard's 'A System of Objects' and think through how spaces and objects constrain and promote different ontologies in a late capitalist world.

We update on some Ramadan goals, we hear a new Drake song about converting to Islam, and then we get a ruling on anime, and Ahmed has been watching Ultimate Airport Dubai, so we talk about that too.

Music:

"New Faith" lyrics generated using ChatGPT, voice generated using Uberduck, beat produced by ThatKalb (aka Ahmed)

"Bread" by Antonio Griggs

Not gonna lie... this one wanders a bit. We discuss angels and demons (not the book), Islamic numerology, pseudo-science, and then we talk about a truly psychicly damaging experience we had visiting a nearby university.

Why are we in Pittsburgh? What does Jordan Peterson think is happening in China? A sheikh advises us about drinking breastmilk, and then we discuss a piece in Buzzfeed about Ramadan Muslims by Hanif Abdurraqib before we get into our own Ramadan goals.

We recorded this one on the road. The audio quality is bad, but I did my best. Yasmine loves to breathe.

(Interlude music: "I love to piss" by Hot Dad)

We discuss conservatives being mad at Hershey's, MILFs, a New Yorker article that didn't need to be written, and some articles in a radical feminist journal from the 60s/70s. Also, as a bonus, Yasmine takes a quiz assessing her instincts as a feminist.

Artwork by Indra Dean Allen for issue #1 of 'No More Fun and Games: A Journal of Female Liberation'